Some of the world's biggest brands have succeeded in large part due to their strong communities of brand evangelists. With limited resources, how can a scrappy startup build and scale a community? In this week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast, Nikki Nixon talks about building the #FlipMyFunnel community and what it took to take it from a small event sponsored by Terminus to a 7,000+ person movement focused on improving the effectiveness of B2B marketing, sales and customer success professionals. From conferences and events, to a private Slack channel, blog contributor program, local meetups, and more, Nikki has built a variety of channels for community participation, all of which have contributed to the growth of FlipMyFunnel's passionate audience.

Hi, my name is Britt Schwartz and I am an Accidental Diminisher. The good news it that while I tend to display diminisher behavior, I am not a raging tyrant of a boss. 'How is that good news,' you ask? It means my behavior, while unbecoming at times, is fixable. Let's celebrate that for a moment. I want to jump into a monologue of how well-intended I am, that I really mean no harm, that it hurts to hear that I do this -- but, I won't. Because it really doesn't matter. What matters are actions; behaviors.

No matter who you ask, an email subscriber list is one of the most valuable marketing assets you can have. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media, an email list is earned contact with your audience that is completely under your control. When someone subscribes, they’ve chosen to hear from you; they gave you their email address knowing that they would. Unfortunately, according to HubSpot, even earned subscriber lists tend to expire at a rate of about 25% a year.

Are you feeling lucky? Every St. Patrick’s Day, millions of people do -- especially in the United States. With more than 126.9 million Americans (30x the population of Ireland) expected to celebrate this year, the holiday can be the pot-of-gold at the end of marketing rainbow for many businesses. From decorations and greeting cards to clothing, food, and drink, over four billion dollars are spent during the celebrations, presenting a fun opportunity for businesses big and small to campaign for their cut.

With Q2 quickly approaching, I’m sure you’ve taken the time to get your marketing team together and brainstormed a million new ideas to try out...right? Whether you have or haven’t yet, there’s a strong chance you’re not making the most out of your marketing brainstorm meetings.

In this episode of the Hubcast, Carina and I chat about getting registered for INBOUND 2018, how conversational marketing is a viable strategy for many companies, and so much more. Plus, you have to check out this week's wishlist item for some special nuggets of HubSpotty information.

I never know how to answer the question “How long have you been at IMPACT?” While last month marked my first year at the company out of college, I never know how to mention that I worked at IMPACT much earlier– long before it was the inbound marketing agency and media company that it is today. As the youngest employee of the team, you may be surprised to hear that I was also one of IMPACT’s first ever employees– number 3 to be exact. IMPACT was founded in fall 2009, and during the following summer, I started at the company learning the basics of web development and graphic design. I was also just 16 and still in high school.